did you say something?

Age:  2 years, 5 months
Height: 36" (50th %)
Weight: 13 kilos (40th %)
O2: 99%

We were thrilled to see those numbers today!  I can't believe how well and how quickly he bounced back from that nasty GI bug he had.

In February, at a routine Audiology follow-up, Super Dude was diagnosed with significant hearing loss.  [As a side note, it is recommended that CDH kiddos have their hearing screened frequently until age 3 because of the risk of late-onset sensorineural hearing loss related to diuretics, mechanical ventilation and high-frequency oscillation]  Luckily, SD's hearing loss is conductive, meaning that he has a problem conducting sound waves, which, for him, is caused by fluid accumulation in the middle ear.  SD's (fantastically wonderful) Pediatrician, Dr. B, referred him to an ENT, so that we can solve this problem before it further delays his speech.

The ENT quickly confirmed that: (1) SD's eardrums do not respond to sound at all, (2) he can not hear anything below normal conversation and what he does hear, he hears as if he's under water, (3) his hearing remains unchanged since the Audiology report in February, and (4) that he needs tubes.  Dr. ENT mentioned that reflux can add to the fluid build-up in the ears and gave us some pointers on how to reduce those effects. The tubes should also help SD sleep more soundly and breathe easier.  It's amazing how related everything is inside the body!

She is willing to perform this surgery in conjunction with SD's abdominal wall hernia repair surgery that we had planned for late summer, but she doesn't want to wait that long before putting the tubes in.  So, we have moved up the surgical consult with Dr. H to next week in an effort to convince beg Dr. H to allow the ENT to insert tubes during his repair surgery.  We'd really prefer to only have SD under anesthesia and breathing-tube placement once, but if Dr. H (whom we literally trust with our child's life) doesn't think it's a good idea, we will be planning two surgeries for this summer.

We'll update more once we know more, but we'd appreciate any happy thoughts you can send his way!

Big boy sitting in the ENT chair!

For more info on tubes, click HERE